Stroudsburg School Board to tap fund balance to close $3.3M deficit

Stroudsburg School Board officials plan to approve a $99.5 million budget tonight, which uses the district's fund balance to close a $3.3 million deficit.

CHRISTINA TATU

Stroudsburg School Board officials plan to approve a $99.5 million budget tonight, which uses the district's fund balance to close a $3.3 million deficit.

The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria at 1100 W. Main St.

Under the proposed budget, the district's tax rate would remain at 157.36 mills.

The only changes from the proposed final budget, which the board adopted in May, is the reduction of $236,721 in expenditures as the result of several retirements, and a $1,014 increase in revenue as the result of an increase in state subsidies, school officials said.

In May, officials announced nine employees were set to retire at the end of the year, including five principals throughout the district.

The total for the nine positions adds up to $871,597, but the five principals need to be replaced, which means the district will only see $236,721 of those savings, Superintendent John Toleno said Tuesday.

Once the $3.3 million is taken from the fund balance, the district will be left with $5.5 million in that account, or 5.6 percent of its total expenditures.

According to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, the three major bond rating agencies — Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch — recommend between 5 percent and 10 percent of the district's current expenditures be kept in the fund balance.

Also on the agenda for tonight, district officials will vote on whether to allocate any leftover funds from the 2012-13 budget toward the purchase of new school buses.

Any unspent money, up to $700,000 from the current year's budget, will be used for the purchase of school buses during the 2013-14 year, according to the proposed motion.

District officials will know how much money is left over once their 2012-13 audit is complete, Toleno said.

Audits are typically started in early August and finished by Oct. 1, he said.

"Right now, we could probably use 25 new school buses, but currently that's not something that is going to happen," Toleno said.

A typical 72-passenger bus costs about $85,000 to replace, he said.

"Some of our buses are not only in excess of 10 years old, but also in excess of 200,000 miles. It's not that the buses don't look good anymore, it's the amount of repairs that start to add up when you are trying to keep an older fleet on the road. It starts to weigh heavily on your mechanics and financial resources," Toleno said.